On 8/5/2013 12:53 AM, Tim Williams wrote:
Yesterday, quite by accident, I caught a nature documentary called "South Pacific" (BBC, 2009). It featured some marvelous footage of the kagu - a weird flightless bird on New Caledonia, mentioned by GSP recently. The kagu's crest of feathers, as well as the wings, were used in an elaborate courtship display. The wings were also used in a threat posture to scare off a predator (New Caledonian crow) that had its eye on a kagu chick nesting on the forest floor. As well as making the bird seem larger, the wing feathers are decorated to make the bird more intimidating.
On a related note, the Peahen Cam, with video http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23423074Scientists in the US have used eye-tracking cameras to work out exactly what peahens find alluring in a peacock's tail fan.
The male birds grow their trains of iridescent feathers during the mating, or lekking, season, fanning them out and rattling them to attract a mate.
...Rather than looking up at the high crescent of the fan above the peacock's head, the eye-trackers revealed that females looked primarily at the lower portions of the train.
"From the head down was where most of their gaze was directed," said Dr Yorzinski.
"The peahens often looked from side-to-side across the bottom portion of the train, suggesting that they were gauging the width of the train."
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